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It is the mission of the UK Data Archive (UKDA) to support high quality research, teaching and learning in the social sciences and humanities by acquiring, developing and managing data and related digital resources, and by promoting and disseminating these resources as widely and effectively as possible.

The responsibility to build and manage research collections carries with it the obligation to ensure that these collections are permanently accessible. The UKDA is committed to the long-term preservation of its collections. Since its inception in 1967, preservation has been a fundamental function of the UKDA. Preservation comprises a set of inter-related activities carried out by several sections of the UKDA.

Systems and Preservation
The Systems and Preservation group has responsibility for preserving data and documentation to ensure they remain usable over time, including monitoring technological changes that will affect preservation and migration decisions.

A preservation policy has been published outlining the principles which underpin the central activity of the UKDA – the preservation of digital resources for continued re-use by its core user community. Guidance on data storage, back-up and security is also available.

Data and Support Services
The Data and Support Services section is responsible for identifying and acquiring data and other resources according to the collections policy, validating the data and documentation and producing and enriching metadata about the data resources in order to populate search tools. This team also provides user access to data and documentation, converts the preservation copy of data to distribution formats to meet user needs, and provides other value-added user support.

Information Development
The Information Development team interprets national and international standards for local implementation in its resource discovery metadata.

Queries concerning the preservation of the digital collections in the UK Data Archive, or digital preservation in general, should be directed to the UKDA Systems and Preservation group.
Email: preservation enquiries